I'm 30...and I survived!

I am now 30! I had a fantastic birthday, full of surprises! I had mentioned in a previous post that on Friday night Matthew and I were going to go see a movie and go out to eat for my birthday while my mom, sister, and grandmother watched Nora for us. Well, I was wrong! Little did I know, but he had been planning a great big 'ol surprise for me. I was honestly shocked and had no idea.

We left our house and set out for the date. Before we had gotten very far, he told me he needed to get gas in the car. I looked at the gauge and it registered at 1/2 of a tank. I immediately panicked..."Are you taking me away for the night?????? I have not mentally prepared to leave Nora! Where are we going?"! He assured me that we were only going to eat and to a movie...he simply got gas because it was at a low price. I still wasn't buying it though. I was near tears as we were pulling out of the gas station. Then he told me he had to stop by Wal-Mart real quick...something is definitely up at this point!

I'm sitting in the parking lot comtemplating getting out and checking the trunk to see if he has bags packed when my phone rings. It's my friend Kristy telling me that she really wants to give me my birthday present before my birthday because she thinks I could use it while my family is here. Would we be able to run by and pick it up either before or after our date? I said no problem. She told me she is at the church getting some work done (she is the Children's Minister) and just to call and let her know so she can unlock the door for me to run in and pick it up.

Matthew shows up about that time and I ask him if it would be okay to stop by the church on our way to eat. He acts a little confused and says, "I guess", so we're off. We get to the church and he says he'll just go in with me...and you guessed it, all my friends are there AND my mom, sister, grandmother, and Nora (who I had left sound asleep and they had to wake her up and throw her in the car...I'm sure she wasn't the happiest baby!).


The food was wonderful and the cake was great! It was so nice of all of my friends to come for my party! I am blessed to have such wonderful friends. My friend, Kristy, also put together a little presentation for me centered around becoming "old". She had a bag full of goodies: reading glasses, a house coat, duck tape (to hold things in place), a magnifying glass, vitamins, and a ton of other things. She outdid herself!

It was a wonderful evening! The next night (my actual birthday), we all went out to eat at BoneFish Grill and then came back to the house for cake. Matthew and I did get to go see a movie after that (we went to see "The Pursuit of Happyness"...excellent!). All in all, it was one of the best birthdays that I have ever had! I am so lucky to have such an amazing husband and family.

This morning at church was Baby Blessing Day. All the babies that were born in 2006 were called up to the front of the church to receive a blessing. The pictures are a little fuzzy because my sister was sitting kind of far back, but you get the idea. It was a special time.



Thank you to those of you who sent birthday wishes! So far, 30 is pretty great!

Last day of my 20's

Well, thank you very much Oprah for knowing I was having a hard time turning 30 and having a whole show about women in their 30's...I really appreciate you. You are making the transisition easier.

Today is my last day in my 20's and I wake up tomorrow a new and older woman. I am finally looking forward to it...no lie.

My mom, sister, and grandmother drove in from Texas last night and are here to celebrate with us. Matthew and I are going on a date tonight and they are going to play with Nora.

You've been great "20's", thanks for the memories!

Hilarious!

This video is hilarious!!!!!! Can you even imagine how your mom would react if this happened to her? Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF-rGQUni6A

Quick list of Nora things:

• She turned 11 months old today
• Her ear infection has cleared up...yea!
• She wakes up in such a good mood!!!! She has since was a little bitty baby, but nowadays, when she wakes up she talks and laughs and wants to cuddle.
• She sleeps from about 11 to 12 hours at night
• Her top teeth are starting to show and she has started gritting them against her bottom teeth...how do I get her to stop this?
• She is starting to refuse baby food. She is little miss independant and wants to feed herself. So, I am trying to find foods that are easy to give. So far, she loves peas, little carrots, corn, shredded up turkey, cottage cheese, eggs, and loves yogurt
• She loves taking things out of a basket and then put everything back in.
• She can "give 5", raise her arms over her head when she hears someone say "yea!", say and wave hi and bye, and clap when she is happy

okay, quick list and by no means exahaustive, but a little about my baby

Double trouble

I got to experience something with Nora this week that I have not experienced yet...a double ear infection! Poor girl, I didn't even realize that it was possibility. She had been coughing and had a TON of snot, which required me to pull out the torture device known as the "nose sucker" in the Henderson home. I thought I would take her to the doctor to see if he could give me anything for her cough. He looked in her ears and then looked at me and asked me if I was aware of her double ear infection. Um...no, that's not why I brought her here. She had not run any fever, was barely crying, and hadn't pulled on her ears more than normal (she tends to pull on her ears when she is really tired). The picture is right before we went to the doctor. You can tell by looking at it that she doesn't feel well. Her eyes give it away...and her hair too. I don't know what happened to her hair yesterday! It didn't feel very good either :).

Two prescriptions later, we are on the road to recovery...hopefully!

It has been a very busy week in our house! I started back to teaching my graduate classes. I teach on Monday and Tuesday nights. On Monday's I have to drive about an hour, so it makes for a very long night! We had an ice storm here this weekend, so the drive Monday was even longer as I was on the lookout for "black ice".

Nora is wanting to pull up on everything so badly! If I stand her beside something, she will hold onto it forever, happy as a lark. She can get up on one leg, but can't figure out how to get her other leg into the standing position.

She will be 11 months old on Tuesday...I cannot believe it! She has a very fun personality. Some parts of her personality make me nervous though. This morning while I was getting ready, she was playing in the bathroom. I had already told her twice to stay away from the trashcan and had even moved it out of her way. I turned back toward the mirror (to apply the makeup which only takes 30 seconds...my "getting ready" time has been dramatically reduced with a mobile kid) and saw her crawling toward the trash can again. Except this time, she was crawling towards it and keeping an eye on me...what a little sneak! What will her 2's be like?

January is quickly coming to an end...which means...my 20's are also quickly coming to an end. I'm doing better and think that I will enjoy my 30's...okay, I just lied. I just typed a lie. I am sure that I will enjoy my 30's but can't make myself believe that. It's not like my 20's have been earth shattering. Yes, I did graduate from college, land a job, get married, have a baby, run 2 half-marathons, buy a house, buy a car (pre-marriage...I am proud of that one), graduate with my master's degree, move about a dozen times, begin teaching college classes, and many other great things. I know (in my head) that my 30's will also hold many exciting and probably better events, but I just have to get that through to my heart. I'm sure I will be posting about all of the birthday events (I don't think there are any...other than dinner with the family).

Stay warm...it is supposed to snow here again this weekend! Did hear something about global warming? Well, Al Gore hasn't told Arkansas about it.

*****I don't know why Blogger does not publish this in the format that I type it in! My spacing looked nothing like this and I definitely separated paragraphs! Grrrrrr!

Friends...

I long to be a friend of my daughter.

I think it is so important, the mother/daughter relationship.

I want to be the friend she goes to when she is 16 and some awful boy has just broken her heart; I want to be the friend she goes to when she is 8 and the really mean girl in her 3rd grade class just made fun of her because she got glasses the day before; I want to be her friend when she is 5 and her teacher says, "Who is your best friend?", and without hesitating, she says, "My mommy!"; I want to be her friend in high school when she is feeling pressure-either from a boy to "take it to the next level" or a group of friends who want her to try (insert drug or alchol here)-and she comes to me to talk about it; I want to be her friend when she gets to college and she is overwhelmed with classes/friendships/late nights/serious relationships that she calls home just to chat and get some advice; I want to be her friend when she gets her first job and calls me to tell me all about her first day; I want to be her friend when she is about to walk down the aisle and she lets me hug her a little bit longer than usual and neither of us want to let go; I want to be her friend in the delivery room when she holds her baby and looks at me and understands how much I love her.

I realize that with having a daughter I also have a lot of potential for serious arguments, stubbornheadedness, slamming of doors, talking back, crying fits, etc. I know all of this because I was once prone to such behaviors (I still do have some of those bad qualities). I also know that my job, as a mother, is to be the "adult", the caregiver, the disciplinarion, the "last say" (of course, all of these will be shared responsibilities with Matthew, but as a stay at home mom, I will have to do many of these during the day, while he is away). We won't always be best friends...I am not that naive. God has given me the gift of a daughter and the challenge of a daughter.

I pray to Him daily that he will grant me wisdom to know how to balance the want of being her friend and the need of being her mother. I pray that He will bless our relationship and grow us both, so that one day, many years from now, when she has her own baby, she will be able to look at me and know the overwhelming love that I have for her each and every second.

Home again, home again

It is so good to be home! We arrived Tuesday night after several set backs. We decided to fly to Texas at the last moment (thanks to my grandmother giving us some of her miles). We were about to leave for the airport last Friday when we received a phone call telling us our flight had been canceled and we had been booked on a later one. So, we sat around for another hour before leaving for the airport (which, thankfully, is a mere 15 minutes away). When we got to the airport, we found out that the flight was also canceled and the entire DFW airport was shut down because of tornadoes. So, we packed up our car and headed home to return to the airport by 7am the next morning. After sitting on the runway in Arkanasas for 30 minutes and then again once we reached Dallas, we finally saw my family.

We had a nice trip with my family....busy as usual, but very nice. I was sick on New Year's Day...all day! I was glad to be sick while around a lot of family so they could take care of Nora (especially Matthew who was "super parent" for the day). Nora got a lot of cute toys, including a rocking horse (that wouldn't fit on the plane...it will have to be delivered later). Matthew and I also got many wonderful gifts. It was really good to see my family!

We spent yesterday taking down our Christmas decorations and getting everything back to normal. I am always sad to see the Christmas stuff go back into the attic. We did rearrange our living room some. Now, my once "Pottery Barn"/"Restoration Hardware"-esque living room has a "toy corner". I am giving in and not fighting the battle any longer. Nora has too many toys to shove them all in a room in the back of the house. I mean, come on, we LIVE in our living room, so she should also be a part. I really think she likes it. This morning, she crawled right over the corner and sat playing for about 20 minutes.

So, our life is getting back to a routine and I am so glad! I love traveling, but love being home even more. I also love my little family of three and I am glad to have us back. I hope everyone else is enjoying 2007! (By the way...only 23 more days are left in my 20's and I am not handling it very well!)